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(No Model.) I E. W. BUFFINTON. ULEAT FOR HOLDING ELECTRIC WIRES.

No. 544,501. Patented Aug. 13, 1895.

imjl UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELISHA W. BUFFINTON, OF FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ALBERT F. DOW, OF SAME PLACE.

CLEAT FOR HOLDING ELECTRIC WIRES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 544,501, dated August 13,1895.

Application filed March 15, 1895. Serial No. 541,841. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELISHA W. BUFFINTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fall River, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oleats for Holding Electric Wires,- of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to cleats, usually made of porcelain, for holding electric wires, commonly insulated, and usually, but not necessarilyinvariably, for holding a plurality of wires.

the device as to secure an exceedingly-'firm grip on the wires.

The nature of my invention is fully de scribed below, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the two parts constituting my cleat separated. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the cleat in position for use.

' Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts. I

A represents the base and A the cap, the two being exactly alike, and, when properly put together, constituting the cleat. Each of these parts is provided with a transverse groove B on its face at one end and suitable serrations B at the other end. By so placing the parts A and A that the groove in one is opposite the serrations in the other the insulated wires S .may be laid in the grooves and pressed against the serrations, when the cleat is secured to a wall a by means of the usual screws 0, which pass through coincident holes D made for the purpose in the parts A A constituting the cleat.

The screw-holes D are situated at a short distance from the lines of insulated wire, and between these screw-holes and the wires are ridges or walls E, extending across the cleat, one wall being built up on each cleat near one end and fitting into a corresponding depression or transverse groove F' in the opposite cleat. These walls being in the direct path between the wires and the screws, it is impos' sible that the electricity from a wire, however poor the insulation may have become, can jump to the screw and hence ground the cur- 6o rent.

In order that the grip on the insulated wires may be exceedingly firm and secure, I provide a row of depressions b in the bottom of the grooves, each depression being independent of the other and constituting a small substantially-circular socket or recess, into which the insulation is pressed. Thus, each wire is held by the sockets or depressions on one side and the serrations B on the other side.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The herein described improved cleat for holding electric wires, consisting of the base A and cap A made exactly alike and adapted to be put together reversely, that is to say, with one end of the base next the opposite end of the cap, each of said parts being provided with the transverse groove B on its face at one end and the serrations B on its face at the other end, and each of said parts being provided with the narrow wall E extending transversely across the cleat and above the highest point on the surface thereof and be- 8 5' tween the screw holes and the points at which the wirescross and the transverse groove F corresponding in shape with said wall E, said groove and wall being placed near opposite ends of the two parts constituting the cleat, 0 substantially as set forth.

2., In a cleat of the character described for holding electric wires, the combination of the two parts A and A, each part having its face at one end formed into the longitudinally ser- 5 rated surface B and at the other end into the transverse groove B provided centrally at its bottom with the line of independent depressions or recesses 19 each smaller in diameter than the groove contained therein, substan- I00 tially as described.

HENRY W. WILLIAMS, E. A. WooDBURY. 

